Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on April 30, 2018 - May 6, 2018

Johor must always be Johor!” This is an oft-repeated phrase by Barisan Nasional and state officials to distinguish the southern state from the rest of Malaysia. The state also calls itself Bangsa Johor, signifying that Johoreans are indeed “different” from other Malaysians.

This distinct feature is also seen in its political status. While a number of state capitals and cities fell one by one to the opposition in the last two general elections in 2008 and 2013, Johor Baru stayed within the BN fold.

And over the last 40 years, with regard to the Johor Baru parliamentary seat, one man has dominated the field. Tan Sri Shahrir Abdul Samad has been holding the seat for most of the period, except for three terms when it was held by incumbent Menteri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

So influential was Shahrir that in 1988, over disagreements with the political factors within Umno, he quit the party and the seat, forced a by-election and won as an independent candidate, beating his opponents from BN and Semangat 46.

But can he defend the seat in the 14th general election (GE14)? Or will the so-called “political tsunami”, which does not seem to have subsided since 2013, hit the Tebrau coast this time round?

Standing against Shahrir in the upcoming polls is a man in his early 30s, PKR’s Akmal Nasrullah Nasir, a native of Johor Baru. Hailing from Stulang, Akmal started his political journey as the campaign coordinator for Rafizi Ramli in Pandan in 2013.

The director of the National Oversight & Whistleblowers group said the 2013 general election was a watershed moment for him in politics, after seeing how the opposition coalition lost to BN despite winning the popular vote.

He packed up and headed back to Johor Baru where he was raised. After being elected to head PKR’s Johor Baru branch, Akmal started working on the ground to rejuvenate the morale of the party members.

Recalling how the people in Johor Baru, especially the Malays, were reluctant to listen to the opposition’s message in 2014, Akmal said he and his comrades forged ahead despite knowing full well that it would be an arduous journey.

“Now, you can see the difference in their receptiveness to PKR and the opposition compared with 2014. Back then, they would not even accept handbills distributed to them,” Akmal told The Edge when met last week.

“But slowly, we are convincing them. It shows our perseverance to remain committed to this city.”

In Johor Baru, PKR has become an alternative channel for the constituents to voice their grouses, he said. Before the branch was reactivated after the election defeat in 2013, Johor Baru folk only sought Umno’s help whenever they faced problems.

Now, PKR is actively voicing the people’s concerns. Akmal said some problems were solved by the state government after the party highlighted them. “So, we are kind of playing the role of getting things moving, for example, the abandoned police IPK (contingent headquarters) building project. When we raised the issue, the government quickly resumed construction works.”

He also took credit on behalf of PKR for voicing out issues faced by traders at Pasar Kampung Melayu — the new market project was delayed for four to five years due to a lack of funds.

While conceding that most people who go to the market would still not recognise that it was PKR that pushed for the building to be completed, Akmal said the traders do appreciate the party’s efforts.

However, contesting against Shahrir would require more than just highlighting problems faced by policemen and small traders. After all, Shahrir won the seat in GE13 with a comfortable majority of 10,134 votes, against PKR’s Md Hashim Hussein.

The opposition fared badly among Malay constituents in Johor in 2013 polls. While Akmal feels that the Malays in Johor Baru are now more receptive to the opposition, is it enough for it to win in the upcoming election?

 

Land matters

While Johor as a whole has been a BN fortress for decades, GE13 showed that the opposition can make headway in the state.

With overwhelming support from Chinese and Indian voters, the then opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, managed to wrest 18 state and five parliamentary seats from BN. However, many of them, except for the Sungai Abong, Maharani and Parit Yaani state seats and the Batu Pahat parliamentary seat, are Chinese-majority seats or mixed seats (with almost equal percentages of Malay and Chinese voters).

So, for the opposition to win the state government and add more parliamentary seats in Johor, it needs to secure the support of at least 30% of Malay voters, said a political observer. In GE13, Malay support for the opposition in the state was estimated at 13%.

Uniquely for Johor Baru, being the closest point in Malaysia to its wealthier neighbour, Singapore, the economic spillover it enjoys has also become a political bane for the incumbent state and federal governments.

Johor Baru city is part of the Iskandar Malaysia development region, which the federal government launched in 2006. The project’s blueprint was inspired by the success of Shenzhen, which became an economic powerhouse in China due to its proximity to Hong Kong.

With many incentives offered to local and foreign investors as well as federal funds being channelled into the Iskandar region, the landscape of Johor Baru city has changed dramatically. From a barren seafront, the Danga Bay and Tebrau coast have since become a property development hot spot. Strategic land parcels are being snapped up by local and foreign developers, with their projects targeted at Singaporeans and mainland Chinese.

Amid the dizzying growth of skyscrapers, Malay settlements in the city, especially those without titles (urban settlers), are being gazetted for redevelopment by the state government. Private developers are also eyeing these parcels to capitalise on the growth of region.

Early this year, settlers of Kampong Dato’ Hajjah Hasnah were served an eviction notice. They will be resettled in one of the apartment blocks built by the state government.

However, a group of them have refused to move out as they have been fighting hard for the land status to be converted from temporary occupation licence (TOL) to leasehold ownership since 2009.

“We have applied for the land status conversion since 2009, but the land department said it could not approve it because of directions from the state government,” said second-generation settler Osman Hashim, who is in his 50s.

“When we asked (incumbent Menteri Besar) Datuk Khaled why the conversion was not approved, he only said he still respects Tan Sri Shahrir’s position as the representative of Johor Baru.”

According to Osman, who is the spokesman for the villagers, the 53 acres that is now Kampong Dato’ Hajjah Hasnah was first settled in 1971, starting with just six houses. The area used to be a swamp, and whenever it rained, the water level would rise to their waists.

In the beginning, the government did not allow settlements there, but as the settlers persisted, it granted them TOL status.

However, when the Iskandar development region was launched, many of the settlements were told to make way for the Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL) project.

While some settlers agree to move to low-cost housing projects, others insist on staying put. The disgruntled villagers, led by Osman, are considering bringing the matter to court as they claim that they have followed all legal procedures to convert the land status.

“Every time there’s an election, Umno will come and promise us that the government will approve the conversion of the land status to leasehold. But since the completion of the EDL in 2009, it has changed its mind and asked us to move out,” said Osman.

Getting a low-cost home may be a dream come true for some people but not the Kampong Dato’ Hajjah Hasnah folk. They insist that Umno has failed to fulfil its promise and that being the original settlers of the land, they have the right to stay.

Pakatan Harapan is using this issue to score political points with the Malay villagers in Johor Baru, who have been staunch BN supporters for decades. During a ceramah in Kampung Melayu Majidee recently, Akmal promised to “bring back the dignity of the Malays”.

Could this land issue become Shahrir’s Achilles heel in the upcoming election? Or would he still be a “giant” too hard for the opposition to defeat?

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